Current combined vision systems (CVSs), which combine synthetic imagery and real world sensor imagery, suffer from a high delay (i.e., high latency) between the conditions of a combined image presented to a pilot and the real time conditions that a pilot is observing through a cockpit window of the aircraft. When an aircraft is flying, the combined image generated by a CVS, which is presented on a display, lags behind the real state of the aircraft due to the time it takes to: a) capture data with a sensor; b) generate a synthetic vision system (SVS) image from aircraft state data; c) blend the two image sources into a combined image; and d) present the combined image on a display. This latency creates a risk that the pilot will be unaware of the true state of the aircraft when viewing a CVS display rather than looking out the cockpit window. In a degraded visual environment, such as rain, fog, snow, or dust, the pilot may see nothing out his cockpit window and be totally reliant on the CVS display. In such degraded visual environment cases, the high delay of current CVSs presents problems.
For example, the high delay in current combined images often results in the combined images not accurately depicting the actual environment outside the aircraft. The delay between the conditions represented in the combined image and the actual real time conditions is especially problematic when operating a helicopter in a degraded visual environment where the pilot may be unable to see the helicopter's surroundings through a cockpit window during takeoff or landing because of airborne dust and debris.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method, apparatus, and system which provide solutions to the aforementioned existing problems.